Dried Shrimp and Pickled Lettuce Salad
Occasionally you pick up a cookbook at random. You park it on your “to read” shelf with every intention of getting around to it. Meanwhile, various disasters transpire: dental work, feline illness, neighbor drama, spousal sickness, inept national leadership, world mayhem. Finally you open the cookbook. There, glimmering, is the…
Moroccan Greens Salad with Preserved Lemon
So your hostess began this week by spending many, many hours with her new special friends at AT&T, arranging for special faster internet. Unrelated photographs. Anyone who has had the pleasure of interacting with tech support at AT&T comes to realize it is offshore. Meaning English fluency is at a premium….
Lamb Chops with Sumac
Should your fingers do this–that is, roll inward and sometimes lock–you’ll be forced to stop whatever you’re doing, put down/let go of whatever you might be holding, and unlock the offending finger(s) with your free hand. As you might imagine, this isn’t always a realistic proposition. One cannot stop whatever…
Asian Fish Cakes
Many of you know the woman behind the IK hails from Detroit. She is of Eastern European extraction. Sadly, she has never traveled to Asia, though she hopes to, one fine day. It may be surmised from the above that the IK has no expertise in matters Asian, culinary or…
Nearly Nicoise Salad
The recipe authenticity argument is a deep, dark hole we’re not going down today. I mean, if you want to go, I won’t stop you, but you’re going alone. Suffice to say the IK is not remotely qualified to call her salads “Nicoise.” She’s never visited Nice, for starters. People who…
Artichokes, Fava Bean and Pea Salad
This morning found me with my head wedged in the oven. Despite my comparatively petite size, I was unable to squeeze in far enough. In an attempt to gain better purchase, I pulled the lower oven rack out. There. Perfect. Tweezers in hand, I wormed myself back in and got…
Vietnamese Beef Salad
Shopping list: port coffee scallions sugar green tea okra garlic limes tomatillos black beans from bulk bin lemongrass!!! A few days ago I found myself staring at my shopping list, bemused. Okra? Tomatillos? Port? Lemongrass? When did I become a person urgently in need of lemongrass? Not so long ago…
Salmon Burgers
Let us agree that “salmon” and “burger” do not belong in the same sentence. So what gives? Well, “salmon slider” sounds like a remnant dance of the disco era. “Salmon patties” like something requiring cleanup. Then again, “salmon slide”….now that could be worked into a Pretenders song parody, or discussion…
Sinkless Salad (Dinner Chicken Salad)
The Insufficient Kitchen’s 70th post is occasioned by increasing insufficiency after the sink quit late Tuesday afternoon. Our plumber promised to appear Thursday morning. Alas, he called needing to postpone until Friday morning. Confident of my amateur plumbing skills, he talked me under the sink, coaching in the art of garbage disposal maintainance: “Just crank…
Warm Chicken Liver Salad
Friends, I’d like to share a theory with you. It’s called “The Theory Of Paid.” January 14th, in addition to celebrating the legacy of Martin Luther King, we observed the anniversary of the Northridge Earthquake. This 6.9 event took place at 4:31 a.m. in Northridge, California, on January 14, 1994….